Tornatta, Abell spar over Vanderburgh GAGE funds

EVANSVILLE - Economic development strategy by Vanderburgh County government could take a new and fundamentally different turn if Republican Marsha Abell defeats Democratic Commissioner Troy Tornatta Tuesday.

Abell proposes to eliminate the county's annual $150,000 share of funding for the Growth Alliance for Greater Evansville (GAGE), a nonprofit organization that runs a business incubator.

The money would go instead to establish what Abell calls "a local grant for seed money for new startups companies or small companies wanting to expand."

"Some of these companies will only need a small amount for permits, money for legal services or money to purchase one additional piece of equipment that will allow for expansion and job creation," she said.

Abell points to the street festivals and car cruise-ins undertaken by GAGE in recent years and asks why county taxpayers should continue to kick in $150,000 if the nonprofit has been diverted from its core mission of giving advice and assistance to new and existing businesses.

"I would not be supportive of an organization getting $150,000 from county money to put on festivals in Downtown Evansville," Abell said. "That's for the city of Evansville to do. That does not benefit the county in any way."

The Republican candidate also cited the fact that a $42,643 private contract with GAGE is part of the nearly $114,000 compensation to Tom Barnett, director of the Department of Metropolitan Development. The City Council zeroed Barnett's compensation out of its 2011 budget earlier this month — including the contract with GAGE, which is ultimately paid for with money transferred from the Evansville Bond Bank.

City Council members say they will decide Barnett's method of compensation in 2011 early in the year.

Abell called Barnett's payment arrangement an "under the table payment," an assertion disputed by city officials who say Barnett's duties include work compatible with elements of GAGE's mission.

The county's allocation to GAGE is recommended by the County Commissioners and funded by the County Council.

In budget deliberations last month, the council needed a little persuasion to approve another $150,000 in county money for GAGE next year.

"We talked about zeroing it out," Council President Russ Lloyd Jr. said then.

Lloyd and Council Finance Chairman Tom Shetler Jr., said council members were concerned that the city administration had guided GAGE in directions that took the organization away from its core economic development mission.

Shetler said, in fact, that GAGE officials have acknowledged to him that the organization must become more acutely focused on economic development.

"We've been given assurances by that group that they are going to get back to their mission statement," he said.

Abell pointed a finger at Tornatta, saying his support for submitting the GAGE appropriation to the County Council constitutes "a gross mismanagement of taxpayer dollars."

But Tornatta said GAGE performs a valuable function, complementing the work of the Economic Development Coalition of Southwestern Indiana Inc., a four-county regional economic development organization into which former agencies such as Vision-e and Quad Counties Development Commission were folded in 2006.

Tornatta acknowledged that GAGE got involved in activities beyond its economic development mandate, but he said the organization should renew its commitment to that charge, and elected officials should facilitate that.

"If they make a mistake, do we give up on them? I don't think so. I think that they're well worth the money that we pay them," he said.

" ... We can say about their outfit, we can say about (the Economic Development Coalition) that, ‘Wow, what have you produced for us?' Well, they keep the pipeline open and keep pumping that Evansville-Vanderburgh County is a place to relocate, and when that breaks loose, that's when we're going to see the dividends of what we paid for. It might not be the multimillion dollar companies coming in today, but it is setting those multimillion dollar companies to come up in the future, and if we don't have this in the pipeline, we're not ever going to see those companies relocate to Evansville and Vanderburgh County."

Tornatta points to Abell's initial reluctance in 2006 to appropriate county money for the then-new Economic Development Coalition.

"She was the only one against (the agency) when (Evansville attorney) Marco DeLucio came to the County Council and asked for regional development money to consolidate all regional development to get it all in one area," Tornatta told a debate audience last month. "She was the only one against that, called it premature."

Tornatta pointed out that then-County Councilman Lloyd Winnecke, now a Republican county commissioner, supported the regional development coalition.

DeLucio did not ask the County Council for an appropriation at that meeting, although he said he probably would later. Instead, he explained, he was seeking the elected officials' blessing.

Abell didn't want to give it, calling DeLucio's presentation "premature" on the grounds that it lacked important details.

"We don't allow any elected officeholder to come up before us with any plan without a budget attached to it," Abell said then. "And you're asking us to support a plan without a budget attached to it."

Abell said she has "no idea whether it's going to cost the taxpayers $1 million or $16 million, and I don't think that's fair to Vanderburgh County."

Tornatta, also a County Council member at that time, told Abell that groups such as the Economic Development Coalition already have been formed in other regions.

"You call it ‘premature,' I call it ahead of the scale," he said.

Abell said this week she does now support the work of the Economic Development Coalition because it is faithfully pursuing its mission.

But with the county now kicking in $139,000 to the regional development coalition on top of the $150,000 it contributes to GAGE, Abell said county taxpayers now finds themselves helping to fund not one, but two economic development groups without enough actual economic development to show for it.

"There comes a point where we have to say, ‘If you're not doing the job, we have to cut you off,' " she said. "If the city is giving GAGE bad direction, let them fund it."

Tornatta is equally adamant that contributing to GAGE is the right thing to do.

"That $150,000 is there to help direct for future development and future progress of our city and county," he said.